Hunting super-heavy dark matter with ultra-high energy photons

Abstract

At any epoch, particle physics must be open to completely unexpected discoveries, and that is reason enough to extend the reach of searches for ultra-high energy (UHE) photons. The observation of a population of photons with energies $E\gtrsim 100$ EeV would for example imply the existence of either a completely new physical phenomena, or particle acceleration mechanisms heretofore never seen or imagined. But as we outline in this Letter of Interest, there are also good arguments for super-heavy dark matter (SHDM) in a parameter range such that it could be discovered via its decays to, in particular, UHE photons. Only ultra-high energy cosmic ray observatories have capabilities to detect UHE photons. We first investigate how current and future observations can probe and constrain SHDM models in important directions, and then outline some of the scenarios that motivate such searches. We also discuss connections between constraints on SHDM and on the parameter values of cosmological models.

arXiv commentSNOWMASS 2021 LoI. Accepted for publication in Astroparticle Physics

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays: The Intersection of the Cosmic and Energy Frontiers
• A search for photons with energies above $2\times 10^{17}$ eV using hybrid data from the low-energy extensions of the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Les Houches Lectures on Indirect Detection of Dark Matter
• GCOS -- The Global Cosmic Ray Observatory
• Searches for Ultra-High-Energy Photons at the Pierre Auger Observatory
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• Constraints on dark matter annihilation and decay from the large-scale structure of the nearby universe
• Computation of Gravitational Particle Production Using Adiabatic Invariants
• Dark matter production through a non-thermal flavon portal
• Science with the Global Cosmic-ray Observatory (GCOS)
• Search for a diffuse flux of photons with energies above tens of PeV at the Pierre Auger Observatory
• Indirect dark matter searches at ultrahigh energy neutrino detectors
• Photon-likeness of hadron showers and impact of Lorentz boosting